CIA Takes Credit for 1950s and 1960s UFO Sightings

The CIA sent out a tweet this week in which the agency took responsibility for reports of UFO’s in the 1950s and 1960s.

CIA Tweet

In a tweet dated December 29, 2014, the agency stated, “Reports of unusual activity in the skies in the ’50s? It was us.” The tweet also linked to a once-confidential report entitled, “The CIA and the U-2 Program, 1954-1974,” which the CIA claimed was its most read document in 2014.

#1 most read on our #Bestof2014 list: Reports of unusual activity in the skies in the ’50s? It was us. http://t.co/BKr81M5OUN (PDF 9.26MB)

— CIA (@CIA) December 29, 2014

Declassified Report

In a section of the report entitled “U-2s, UFOs, and Operation Blue Book,” it is noted, “…once U-2s started flying at altitudes above 60,000 feet, air-traffic controllers began receiving increasing numbers of UFO reports.” The report also states that the high altitude was unknown to most people at the time. “At this time, no one believed manned flight was possible above 60,000 feet, so no one expected to see an object so high in the sky.”

Air Force’s Operation Blue Book, which investigated UFO sightings at the time, was in contact with the agency, and used classified information about U-2s to “eliminate the majority of the UFO reports, although they could not reveal to the letter writers the true cause of the UFO sightings…”

The section of the report concludes that “U-2 and later OXCART flights accounted for more than one-half of all UFO reports during the late 1950s and most of the 1960s.”

There have been 104 U-2s built since their introduction in 1957, including one which was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960 and another which was lost during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

Bottom Line

The CIA has claimed responsibility for more than half of the UFO sightings in the late 1950s and 1960s. The revelation by the CIA is unlikely to deter staunch UFO enthusiasts, but it marks an interesting addition to the UFO discussion.